


sleep is for the weak

by angel_authoress



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Cute, F/M, Fluff, Set in Season 3, imp and emily make appearances too bc they're cute, this is just something wholesome and cute after s4 destroyed me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:21:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21644338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angel_authoress/pseuds/angel_authoress
Summary: Hordak finds Entrapta asleep in his lab and debates with himself over what he should do.
Relationships: Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 241





	sleep is for the weak

**Author's Note:**

> hi this is just something soft and cute that i wrote to make myself feel better hopefully you guys like it ;;
> 
> also this is the first time i've ever written anything in present tense so it'll probably suck lol
> 
> enjoy,,?

Hordak doesn’t sleep- at least, not nearly as much as an Etherian does. If he were a proper clone of his brother then he wouldn't need it at all, but there are some things that even the tech can't fix, so from time to time, roughly for a few hours every month or so, he rests. 

But of course he doesn't tell this to anyone in the Fright Zone. It's a secret that not even Entrapta knows. He tells his soldiers that he doesn't sleep at all, of course, because he knows that there are people that would take advantage of this weakness if he revealed it. Besides, it instills motivation in his soldiers. He’s always awake, so he’s always watching. There is _nothing_ he doesn't know, nothing he won't find out. 

However, to the knowledge of very few, he does retreat to his private chambers during the late hours of the night, but this is just to prevent force captains (namely Catra, who has been getting awfully comfortable in his sanctum as of late) and others from barging in on him during their late shifts. He may not sleep, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t greatly value his downtime.

And then Entrapta came along, and Hordak began staying in his sanctum later and later. As he discovered, Entrapta doesn’t sleep much. In fact, she seems to avoid it as much as she possibly can. She treats it more like a chore than a function that her body needs to perform in order to operate properly.

_“Sleep is for the weak,”_ she’d said to him once. She hadn’t seen it, but he’d smiled to himself after she said it.

They've now reached a point in their relationship where Hordak trusts her enough to leave her alone in his sanctum to continue on her own. He’s tried before to get her to go to bed out of concern for her health- but his efforts are always in vain. She’s determined to see this project through to the end, and is more than willing to disregard her body’s needs to do so. As admirable as it is, it’s also a bit alarming, even to someone like Hordak who doesn’t share those needs in the same way she does.

When Catra heard about Entrapta being able to roam freely in Hordak’s lab without him, she of course was furious. She went on and on about how she’s a princess and that he’s trusting her too easily. Hordak had wanted to remind her for the sake of argument that Scorpia was also a princess, yet she and Catra seemed close. But he didn’t want to give her any sort of idea that he cared about her personal life, so he quickly dropped the thought.

_“Admit it!”_ she’d shouted at him during a heated argument. _“You have this weird obsession with her that goes way beyond your portal machine!”_

Hordak had dropped the subject after that, because he doesn’t owe Catra an explanation for anything. Her entitlement issues are something that he’s going to have to address in the future.

The point is, while he’s in charge, Entrapta can go anywhere she likes in the Fright Zone, and there’s not a thing Catra or anyone else can say to change that. She’s long since proven herself to be trustworthy. And so, now that she’s been happily working alongside him on the portal machine, his sanctum is no longer off limits to her. Still though, he’s a bit shocked when he finds Entrapta one early morning passed out in his sanctum. She was slumped against a bot- or rather, _Emily_ , as she had affectionately named it. Her tablet was just a few inches from her open hand- she must have fallen asleep while she was reading it.

Imp jumps off his shoulder and pokes at her curiously. Hordak gently swats him away out of fear that he’ll disturb her. Now he has a dilemma. He could wake Entrapta up and urge her to go to bed, but knowing her and how strong her work ethic is, she’ll most likely insist on working through the day despite the fact that she desperately needs to sleep.

He could just leave her, he supposes, but as much as Entrapta may adore Emily, she can’t be very comfortable to sleep on. She deserves a proper place to rest. But he couldn’t exactly move her himself, could he? What if she’s a light sleeper? What if she awakens and gets scared-

_No,_ he tells himself. She wouldn’t be afraid. She’s _never_ been afraid of him. That’s one of the things he’s always admired about her. She’s _brave_. One might even say brave to a fault, but her faults have always made her all the more impressive in his eyes.

For the first time in his life, he’s found someone that he doesn’t want to be afraid of him. If Entrapta were truly afraid of him, it would upset him greatly. He’s not quite sure why.

His better judgment tells him to just leave her be, but he knows he can’t focus knowing that she might be uncomfortable. He decides to take the risk and bends down to scoop her into his arms.

She’s light, he notes. She twitches and mumbles something incoherent, but shockingly doesn’t awaken as she’s moved. Hordak secures her in his hold before motioning for Imp to come along. He can’t take her back to her own room because he doesn't know where it is, and he certainly isn’t about to wake her up and ask. Besides, his room would suffice. She would be comfortable there.

Imp giggles knowingly and Hordak huffs.

As he’s carrying her back to his quarters he feels her shift in his arms. Her face presses closer to his chest and he can’t help the flush of heat that spreads across his cheeks, his ears, and the slope of his neck. He can only hope that she doesn’t wake up and see him like this. It’s rather unbecoming for someone of his status to look so flustered.

“Warm,” she mumbles tiredly. It’s faint, but he catches it, and it’s enough to make him blush harder. His ears twitch as he fights the urge to respond. 

They reach his quarters and he sets her down on the bed that he hardly ever uses. He gently puts the blanket over her. Imp curls up next to her and purrs contently. Hordak notes that he’s taken a bit of a liking to her. At first he wasn’t fond of her, but he seems to have warmed up to her presence and is now comfortable enough around her to perch on her shoulder or ask for some of her food.

“Look out for her,” he says to Imp. “Come to me if anything happens.”

Imp nods and nuzzles into her hair.

Unlike most rooms in the Fright Zone, there’s a window in his room. He likes being able to look out at the sky. The light from the night sky spills into the room and illuminates her soft features. Despite the risk of awakening her, he reaches out and ever so gently cups her cheek. The numerous stars and planets and galaxies he’s seen couldn’t possibly compare to her smile or the way her eyes lit up, he thinks.

_'Remarkably gorgeous'_. That was one of the first thoughts he'd had when he met her, and suddenly he remembers meeting her like it was yesterday.

“You should take care of yourself,” he says softly. “You needn’t push yourself this far, princess.”

Funny. The word ‘princess’ used to leave a bitter taste in his mouth.

Luckily, she stays asleep. She must have been exhausted.

He removes his hand from her face before she can notice and wake up. She was going to question him, that much he knows, but that can come after she gets the rest she needs. 

He spares her and Imp one last glance before he heads out of his room and back to his lab to begin today’s work on the portal. He can handle doing things by himself today while Entrapta gets her rest, he thinks. But, as he had already come to realize, he had grown quite accustomed to her presence.

Whereas before he despised the thought of others entering his sanctum, now all he could think about is how empty it feels without her there.

He smiles a little to himself and quickly sets to work.


End file.
